Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Company, formerly known as the state-owned Hongdu Machinery Factory, was founded in 1951, when the People's Republic of China had just been founded, and was one of the 156 key projects of the national "First Five-Year Plan"; At the same time, it is also the production base of Huaxia training aircraft, strong attack aircraft, agricultural and forestry aircraft, coastal defense products, projectile looms, motorcycles and engines, and the first aircraft of New China took off from here. In later generations, this company was renamed Hongdu Aviation Industry Group and became a large-scale enterprise mainly engaged in training aircraft.

And this company can become such a large group, mainly in the training aircraft force, Hongdu Group is the main training aircraft, in the future is self-funded, the development of a new generation of training aircraft.

When the Pakistani delegation appeared at the Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Company, the leaders of the company and the Air Force all came to the scene to greet them.

A thin old man, standing at the front of the crowd, was very excited, and his face was wrinkled because of emaciation, and age spots had appeared, but his spirit was still very high.

He was the chief designer of the company, and later became known as the father of K-8 Shiping.

In 1934, Shi Ping was born in a poor family in Boyang County, Jiangxi Province. After the liberation, Shiping relied on government grants to complete secondary school and university. After graduating from Nanjing Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shi Ping came to Nanchang Aircraft Factory, and has been working until now, he participated in and presided over the imitation and development of various types of aircraft such as An-2, Dongfeng 103, Chujiao 6, Qiang 5 series modification aircraft, and now, the development of Jiao-8 is the focus of the whole company!

The project for the Jiao-8 progressed slowly, until Pakistan was involved and a suitable engine was contacted. This project has just been on the fast track, and now, the President of Pakistan has come to visit China Southern Airlines, how can they not be excited!

Finally, that Pakistani plane. The corner was on the runway, and after Mhammad got off the plane, he ran straight to the small plane on the other side of the track.

The trainer is small, the length of the fuselage is only 11 meters, including the airspeed tube in the nose, the wing is an ordinary straight wing, no backsweep, and the rounded engine air intakes on both sides serve as a trainer aircraft. The front and rear cockpits occupy a lot of volume, especially the rear cockpit, which is also raised to gain a good view.

Compared with the advanced technologies of variable sweep wings and wing-body fusion and enlarged side strip wings, the aircraft in front of you is not at all touched, but this aircraft has good handling performance. It is capable of completing various flight maneuvers such as tail thrust with low operating costs. It is very suitable for training pilots. In later generations, this seemingly inconspicuous training aircraft was exported to third world countries in large quantities, and it was one of the few models that could earn foreign exchange.

In those African countries, this trainer aircraft is even directly attached to the bomb and can carry out bombing missions.

"President Hammad. This is the Jiao-8 aircraft that we developed. Shi Ping introduced to Mhammad: "According to your requirements, we are equipped with Martin Baker ejection seats, your flight instrument system, instrument landing system, TACAN navigation system and radio, etc., and we have also cooperated with the American Aerospace Equipment Company to equip a high-efficiency environmental control system, and cooperated with the American Garrett Company to design the intake and exhaust system." Now the aircraft has completed flight tests in the country. He will go to the United States to complete the tests of engine distortion, rotating balance, environmental control system, ejection lifesaving and electronic flight instrument system cross-linking. If it goes well, it will be able to finalize production by the end of this year. ”

It's fast! A lot of advanced electronic equipment is made in Pakistan, advanced technology, low cost, ejection seats are made in the United States, the engine is provided by the United States, therefore, many flight tests of this training aircraft will go to the United States for conduct, which can shorten the development cycle faster, the Americans have installed this engine on a lot of aircraft, supporting rich experience, which can greatly shorten the development process.

"Okay, okay." Mhammad was very interested, climbed the ladder, sat in the cockpit, and looked at the instruments in front of him, although they were still mainly conventional instruments, and there were also two LCD screens, so that it would be easier for the pilot to adapt to the main fighter when he modified it.

"Can you take me for a lap?" Mhammad asked.

Hearing Mhammad's question, the Pakistanis present were stunned for a moment, this is not an aircraft that has been put into service, it is an aircraft that has not yet been finalized, and there are many unknown instability factors in the performance of this aircraft, so it is too risky to fly like this.

Shi Ping also looked embarrassed and said: "This, President Mahmad, we haven't prepared yet." We have prepared a report, can you listen to our report? "Obviously, the risk is too big for him to bear.

"Okay." "I'd also like to hear about our aircraft and how the project is going," Mhammad said. ”

Super 7 and 4th generation aircraft, it can be said that the two sides have just determined the joint development, but this Jiao-8, is completely jointly developed by the two sides, Pakistan needs this trainer aircraft, has signed a contract with Nanchang Airlines.

Sitting in the conference room of Nanchang Airlines, the chief designer of Shiping, who was still excited on his face, said to Mhammad: "According to our original agreement, you are responsible for manufacturing part of the fuselage and avionics equipment, and the final assembly is carried out here, and now, we have built five prototypes, two for static testing, and now, we have completed more than 60% of the test flight projects, and by the end of this year, after all the project test flights are over, we can start manufacturing at the same time, I hope you are ready, Ready to manufacture pre-produced airframe parts. ”

The technical difficulty of the Jiao-8 is far lower than that of other aircraft, and the development project is progressing very smoothly. ”

Not to mention, the engine is in stock, and the ejection seat is ordered from the United Kingdom, for the pilot, the ejection seat is a second life, because the fighter plane is flying at high speed, like the propeller aircraft of the World War II era, relying on the pilot to climb out of the cockpit by himself, and then parachute, it is absolutely impossible, the rocket-boosted ejection seat must be used to be able to quickly disengage from the malfunctioning aircraft.

In terms of ejection seats, the leading ones were the Soviet Union and Great Britain, and the Soviet fighters had an accident flying abroad at the air show, and before the plane crashed, the ejection seat took the pilot out of the plane and escaped safely, giving the Soviet ejection seat enough advertising.

The British Martin Baker ejection seat is even more famous all over the world, not to mention, even most of the fighters in the United States use the ejection seat of this British private company, including the famous F-22 and F-35 fighters in later generations. Therefore, the fighter planes equipped by Pakistan, the ejection seats are also selected from this brand.

As for Huaxia's own research and development of ejection seats, although the performance is also good, and there is also a high life-saving rate, however, on this key issue, Mhammad still chooses the best performance product for his own fighters, after all, pilots are almost piled out of gold.

"I believe that as long as our training aircraft can be developed, the market must be very large, in addition to our Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries, there is such a demand." "The task we are facing now is to act in accordance with the laws of science and make this training aircraft trial production as soon as possible," Mhammad said. ”

Now, Huaxia is already a market economy, an aircraft is made, it must be able to be sold, this is a success, in addition to equipping the Huaxia Air Force, there must be enough overseas markets, those countries in the Middle East, if they can expand the market, the future of this training aircraft must be very bright.

"Thank you President Hammad for his trust in us, if we go to the international market, should we have a loud name for this training aircraft?" Shi Ping said: "In the past, this was our own model, called Jiao-8, and now it is a model that we have jointly developed and promoted to other countries." ”

Mhammad immediately said: "Let's call it Karakorum, referred to as Kunlun, and the code name has been changed to K-8, so it's more pleasant to call, what do you think?" ”

Karakoram, a famous mountain range in Asia, originated in Afghanistan and stretches about 480 kilometers from the easternmost part of Afghanistan to the southeast. The width is about 240 km, the length is 800 km, and the average altitude is more than 5500 meters. With the borders of Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India all bordering this mountain range, this uninhabited region is of great geopolitical significance. The name of Muhammad Kunlun naturally has a deep meaning, representing the friendship between China and Pakistan, which is as solid as a rock like this glacier.

"After the successful flight of this trainer aircraft, we hope to be able to improve on the basis of this trainer aircraft and become a multi-axis variable stability aircraft. Using fly-by-wire control, we can simulate complex flight conditions, and can also simulate the characteristics of a variety of fighters flying in the air, as long as we input the parameters of different types of aircraft, we can simulate the flight characteristics of this kind of fighter, so that pilots can familiarize themselves with the fighters to be changed in advance. Even before the new fighter is developed, the design parameters on the drawing are entered into its simulation equipment, and the flight simulation can be carried out," Shi Ping continued.

Mhammad was shocked to hear this, this has better performance as a higher education machine! It is the type of trainer aircraft that the Pakistan Air Force urgently needs! (To be continued......)